KSI says he wanted to show he's a "worldwide artist" with collaborations on Dissimulation album

For a YouTuber that has over 21 million subscribers and won his boxing rematch with fellow YouTuber Logan Paul in November 2019, KSI's debut LP Dissimulation elevates the multitalented entertainer into new realms by his choice of huge collaborators to prove his place in the music scene.

Prior to release, KSI dropped "Houdini" featuring Swarmz and Tion Wayne, "Poppin" with Smokepurpp and Lil Pump, and "Wake Up Call" featuring Trippie Redd, who KSI says is "an interesting guy".

Today (22 May), the full Dissimulation album is out, and features Migos' Offset on the hard-hitting "Cap", as well as collaborations with Rick Ross and Lil Baby, Jeremih, and more.

Speaking to Best Fit about the collaborations, KSI explains, "I think for me - you’ll probably think this is weird - I liked doing the tracks on my own more. For me, a big track that I rock with a lot is “Domain”, and I’m a person that does really well by myself. Obviously I can work with other people, but by myself I just become a different beast [laughs]."

He adds, "For me the collaborations were important to try and showcase that I can be on that level musically. The tracks on my own is me showing this is what I can do well, but I feel like you need that validation with the collaborations for people to believe it or accept that you’re trying to do the music thing. I made big tracks with big artists to show that I can be on their level as well, and I don’t seem out of place."

Discussing the ratio of US/UK collaborators, KSI says, "I definitely wanted to show that I’m a worldwide artist, and that’s just mainly through YouTube. YouTube has allowed me to be worldwide, it’s not like I’m just a UK-based person - obviously yes I’m based in the UK but I wanted to show that I have a foundation all over the place and that I can make tracks with American artists and prove that I can be on that level, and that I want to be a worldwide artist. I made the track ["Houdini"] in the UK as a quick homage to show I can do that whenever I need to. I’ve been making UK tracks for the longest time, I’ve worked with Jme, P Money, so it is kind of like me going on to the next step and proving to myself that I can do that with these artists, and I feel like I’ve done a good job."

Expanding on "Houdini" and his choice of working with Swarmz and Tion Wayne, KSI explains, "I just knew that collaboration would work. Swarmz does bits on hooks and I know he kills it on hooks, and the track was perfect for him, and I knew Tion Wayne was gonna add a bit of gangster in it that it needed, and yeah I just knew it was just gonna work, they were the right pieces to the puzzle. I just needed to make sure I did my ting to the best of my ability - the rest is history."

KSI is releasing the music video for his Offset collaboration "Cap" today (22 May), and tells Best Fit that meeting him on the video shoot "was quite surreal. I just know whenever I do perform that track it’s gonna shut down the place."